Saturday, November 7, 2015

October 2015 Subcompact Car Sales

Adios, October! The 10th month of the year was a good one to Mazda, which saw sales of its popular Miata skyrocket 276.7% compared to October 2014, with total sales up 72.7% thanks to its redesigned sports car. MINI's Cooper Convertible had a big bump in sales up 95.2%, although the 443 models sold don't exactly account to big numbers. Honda's CR-Z hybrid, which is neither that sporty or efficient, had a 54.1% bump in sales, but is still in the red in terms of overall sales for 2015.

The biggest loser of the month goes to MINI's oddball Paceman, which is down 87.4% moving just 23 units. More strangely, Honda's Fit is down a whopping 80.1%, moving just 1,363 units for some reason. What's up with that? Overall sales are down slightly at 2.1%. Fiat also did not have a great month with both its 500 and 500L models selling at a -58% and -54% drops vs. last year with overall sales in the red, too.

Of the newer cars, the Jeep Renegade continues to be a sales success, as is the Chevy Trax. Scion's iA sold a modest 1,977 units, and we also added Mazda's CX-3 to the chart.

For what it's worth, we've removed the MINI Roadster, Coupe, and Clubman, as those models are now obsolete.

3 comments:

The American public have incredibly short memories when it comes to high gasoline prices and gas guzzling cars. Sure we've been on easy street here in the good old USA for the last year, BUT that doesn't mean we can be in a $4.00 plus a gallon price for petrol in a year or two. Sure everyone likes a big flashy comfortable, status symbol oriented ride like an Escalade or S550 but many people overlook the virtues of a fun to drive toss able compact either. Don't get me started on the subject of nonexistent compact trucks...shame on you Toyota for not offering a manual in your new Tacoma. KIA, you have a niche market here, offer true compact UTE based off of the Soul and I will buy! One last thought to all of those who just plunked 35 or 40 large on a gas guzzler, you just signed a 6 year note on your beauty, a LOT can happen in 6 years! Now I'll come off of my soap box!

The number of Honda Fits on dealer lots around the Midwest has been very low for the last few months. Over the summer most of the dealers around here had between 20 and 30 in stock, but right now most 5 or less - and those mostly are '15 EXs with the manual transmission. The dealer nearest to me just got its first '16 Fit in: a LX CVT with a Japanese VIN. I read somewhere that Honda is shifting some of the US Fit production to Japan, so the Mexican planet and focus on building enough HR-Vs to meet demand. Perhaps the production shift has to do with the low number of new Fits around.

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